The Prelude, Conference Championships: Putting Favre Backlash in Perspective

Matt Ufford is the editor of With Leather and a co-founder of Kissing Suzy Kolber. The Prelude is his sincere examination of the coming NFL weekend.

It took Green Bay's shellacking of my beloved Seahawks to help me realize I don't hate Brett Favre.

Last week, I watched Seattle's defense go belly-up in the Lambeau snow in a loud bar with a couple friends. And though Ryan Grant did most of the damage in the Packers' dominating 42-20 win, Brett Favre still did typically memorable Brett Favre things -- from miraculously tripping his way out of a sack on third down then flipping an underhand pass that kept a red zone drive going to throwing snowballs at teammates.

Momentarily disregarding the fury I felt at my team during those moments, I couldn't help but swear at Favre in admiration. He's been making ridiculous plays like that for the better part of the last 17 years, and, honestly, it's fun to watch someone have that much fun.

But then I stopped and asked myself, "Wait, how come I don't hate Favre right now?" And the answer was simple: I couldn't hear the game announcers over the din in the bar.

There are, after all, at least two Brett Favres. The first is the man who plays quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. He has won a Super Bowl, three MVP awards, and holds the NFL records for career touchdown passes (442) and consecutive starts (253, a Ripkenesque mark for a quarterback). He also holds the NFL mark for career interceptions and has overcome a drinking problem -- partly why he was traded from Atlanta -- and an addiction to Vicodin.

Another Favre is the Favre of myth, conjured by announcers and sportswriters. This is the Favre that is "gritty" and "plays for the love of the game." This Favre is the Gunslinger, the recipient of saccharine columns written by lapdog columnists, a titan of the game whose faults and missteps (the drugs, the five seasons of 20+ interceptions) are somehow credits to his legacy.

Separating the two is difficult and rarely done by the cynical voices in the sports blogging realm, but it's an important distinction to make. Many of us fans write screeds against Favre, when what we're really opposed to is the overkill of glowing praise from the media. Anyone who heard the Monday Night Football crew praise #4 for how hard he overthrew an open receiver in the end zone during Green Bay's Week 8 overtime win against Denver knows what we mean.

What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry that I wished for him to break his femur in Week 1, when I wrote this:

I hope Brett Favre is horrifically injured on the first play from scrimmage, leaving the Pack in the hands of the Aaron Rodgers, whom Favre has steadfastly refused to help develop. Over the course of the season, as Rodgers leads Green Bay to a surprise playoff berth, Favre rehabilitates his injury – say, a broken femur – in the hopes of returning. When Week 17's game against Detroit at Lambeau Field arrives, a limping but healed Favre earns the start, and, in a touching ceremony, announces his retirement to a rabid crowd before opening kickoff.

He is then horrifically injured on the first play from scrimmage.

I don't want Favre injured, but I do want a reprieve from the endless Will he or won't he retire? speculation and the glowing career retrospectives every time the Packers play a Monday night game.

And the shame of it is that the history is enough. Favre's accolades and toughness are more than enough to earn him a place with the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and his personality is big enough for fans to remember him fondly. As long as you keep the volume down.

AFC Championship

Chargers (13-5) at Patriots (17-0), Sunday, 3:00 Eastern, CBS -- The three most important players on San Diego's offense -- Philip Rivers, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Antonio Gates -- are injured, and LT is the only one of the trio certain to play. Of course, Michael Turner is about as talented as backup running backs get, and Billy Volek led last Sunday's game-winning drive, so who's to say what the Chargers can't do?


Oh, right: the Patriots are. New England's offensive juggernaut is unlikely to be stopped, but if the Bolts can force a couple turnovers and get a significant contribution from their special teams, they might be able to keep it close. Might. Anyone who takes the Chargers to win outright is either brave, foolhardy, or in direct contact with the Lord Himself.

NFC Championship

Giants (12-6) at Packers (14-3), Sunday, 6:30 Eastern, FOX -- While the obvious and most enticing Super Bowl story would be Favre's Packers against the New England's Belichick machine, the Giants seem strangely well-equipped to take on Green Bay in what will be absolutely frigid weather (single-digit degrees at kickoff, quickly dropping as night sets in).

The Giants, previously a team known for despising its coach and melting down in the second half of the season to set up embarrassing exits from the playoffs on Wild Card weekend, have looked like bruisers since their Week 17 barn burner against New England. They have a power running game, a dominant pass rush, and Eli Manning seems to have learned to throw accurately under pressure sometime in the last month. Of course, you can say almost the same thing about the Packers, but the guy under center for Green Bay is just a little more seasoned.



1. Many thanks to those of you who wondered about the condition of my head after I wrote this last week: "Earlier this season the Chargers needed six interceptions to narrowly edge the Colts. I'll slam my head in my front door until I'm unconscious if Peyton Manning does that again." It's important to note that the conditional masochism was for a six-INT performance from Manning, not a Chargers win.

2. A big topic of conversation this week has been how Philip Rivers's big mouth has turned him into one of the league's least likable players (and one of Kissing Suzy Kolber's funniest characters). In defense of Rivers, CBS Sportsline's Gregg Doyel penned an illogical series of falsehoods clouded by his long history with Rivers and strung together by the absence of reason.

It's hands-down the biggest piece of tripe I've seen this week. And believe me, I know from tripe. I write a large percentage of all tripe on the Internet every week.

3. To whet your appetite for Championship Weekend: the NFL Network's Top 10 Conference Championship game moments.

4. I've been working on the logistical details of a trip to Arizona so I can attend and report on Super Bowl festivities, and I want to warn everyone now: prepare yourselves for the kind of complaints about a Super Bowl city not seen since Jacksonville. I like Phoenix, but it's spread out over a huge area, and its public transportation ranks somewhere above "nonexistent" but well below "poor."

5. Jason Garrett is staying in Dallas to be assistant head coach, turning down the top spots in Atlanta and Baltimore. And who can blame him? I wouldn't want to pick up the detritus left behind by Bobby Petrino or Brian Billick, either.

6. News only I care about: By the time the dust clears, at least 10 Seahawks will have had surgery this offseason. Most recently, Shaun Alexander went under the knife to remove his fossilized skeleton from a South Dakota boneyard that is home to several other species from the Jurassic Period.


7. Is it too early to talk about the NFL draft? Absolutely. We've got three football games left to cherish, then nothing BUT the draft to talk about for the next two and a half months.

8. My completely amateur, unresearched picks this week: Pats and -- against my better judgment -- Giants. Surprisingly, I'm actually six for eight in picking winners in these playoffs. And yes, I know: real gamblers pick against the spread.

9. If I can take a brief break from the NFL, I'd like to wish MJD a fond farewell. The Debriefing has been an integral part of FanHouse since it debuted last year, and its success paved the way for The Prelude, for which I'm obviously thankful. Good luck at your new digs, brother.

10. Enjoy the games, everyone. If you're not a Giants or Chargers fan but find yourself despising Favre and Tom Brady, try mashing down on that "mute" button. It does wonders for my blood pressure.